Shaw Digital Phone Gotcha

A few months ago I switched my home phone service over to Shaw's Digital Phone. It has been absolutely great ever since. The sound quality is excellent, as are the many features that it comes with. Based on my calculations, I just need to make $10 of long distance calls every month in order for it to be a better deal than what I was getting with Telus.

However, this past month I ran into a "gotcha". Shaw is strongly advertising 1,000 free minutes to several international destinations, including the UK. I made a call to England last month which lasted almost an hour. I had the option to call on my computer via Skype but chose to try out Shaw's service to an overseas location.

Everthing was fine until the bill arrived. There was a surcharge for $25.21!!! I immediately called Customer Service to see why it was there. The customer service rep asked if the call was to a cel phone. I responded honestly: "I don't know." The reason she asked is because apparently there's some fine print that the 1,000 free minutes doesn't include calls to Cel phones.

She was very kind and reversed the charges for me this time. But I doubt I'll ever use their service for overseas calls again. I just don't see myself asking someone whether the number I'm calling is a cel phone and I doubt others will either. My prediction is that there'll be a major media controversy about this later this year, much like the Rogers reverse billing fiasco a decade ago that effectively forced Rogers out of the province.

I do understand Shaw's position: They're billed for such calls so they have to pass the costs onto the consumer but they really should try to take more steps to warn the consumer against this hidden surcharge. Though the fact that I was told that their cost is "a few cents" and yet they're charging $0.46 per minute for calls to UK cel phones isn't going to help their case in the court of public opinion!